


Episode 1: Planet of twists and turns

by thegalrahobbitofplantetgalilfrey



Series: The Red Paladin's Double [1]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Child Abuse, Gen, Keith gets injured, Lance (Voltron) Flirts, Platonic Cuddling, Slavery, inexperienced surgery
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-12
Updated: 2016-12-12
Packaged: 2018-09-08 04:03:52
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,819
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8829763
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thegalrahobbitofplantetgalilfrey/pseuds/thegalrahobbitofplantetgalilfrey
Summary: Voltron picks up a distress call, planet is already taken. They meet a slave named Shiana and she escapes with them.





	

**Author's Note:**

> So this is sometime in between seasons 2 and 3. Keith is a Galra, but he's gotten over the insecurities of being one. (or so it seems. ;)

Planet of Twists and Turns  
“Wheeeooo, Wheeeooo!” The alarm rang and the Paladins ran into the control center.  
            “What’s up, Coran,” asked Shiro, voice all business.  
            “I’ve picked up a distress signal coming from a nearby planet,” Coran replied, “It looks as though it started only a week ago, so hopefully the Galra didn’t conquer them yet.”  
            “What are we waiting for, then,” replied Lance, “Let’s kick some Galra butt!” In a rare moment of agreement, Keith nodded.  
            “It could be a trap,” warned Alura, “we don’t know who sent this.”  
            “We should try anyway,” argued Hunk, “Someone could be in real danger. What if they’re being made slaves like the Balmerans?’  
            “Hunk is right,” put in Shiro, “It is our duty to protect everyone who asks for help.”  
Alura sighed and placed her hands on the controls. They lit up and a wormhole appeared. The paladins stared at the planet showing up on the view-screen. Suddenly, a blast rocked the ship. The Castle of Lions was under attack. Coran frantically started pressing controls.  
            “Paladins,” he shouted, “get to your lions! You help the people of the planet! Alura and I will deal with these ships!” The paladins rushed to the decks where their lions were kept and blasted down to the planet.  
            All was peaceful, so the quintet climbed out of their lions. They remained in tight formation. The planet was a jungle.  
            “Keith, put on your disguise transmitter. We don’t need the natives thinking you’re the enemy,” ordered Shiro. Keith nodded and pressed a button on his belt. His purple skin turned to a natural human color, his ears shrinking and his eyes stopping their golden glow. The five walked on, sure that something would jump out and attack them. But nothing did.  
            Eventually the paladins reached a small, deserted village. At least it seemed deserted. There was something wrong that Lance couldn’t quite put his finger on. Then he heard it. A high pitched whine. He’d know that sound anywhere.  
            “Get down,” he roared, pulling Pidge, who was the closest to him, to the ground, activating his shield. A shot blasted over them, and suddenly they were all fighting for their lives. Keith swung his sword in a blazing arc, taking down Galra robots with every swipe. Lance and Hunk continuously shot their guns, trying to keep the robots from getting to a close range. Pidge would sneak up behind and violently dismember the mindless sentries. Shiro’s arm swung again and again, trying desperately to keep his team members safe.  
            Lance turned and saw a sentry sneaking up on Keith. He yelled a warning, but it was too late.  
            Keith heard Lance’s cry and turned, only to be shoved to the ground by metal hands. His bayard skittered out of reach, and he robot raised its weapon, ready to kill Keith. But then it didn’t. Electricity cackled along its circuits, and the robot collapsed. Behind the robot was a girl. She was dressed in a slave outfit, but was wearing some kind of metal gloves on her hands and metal boots on her feet. She was saying something Keith couldn’t quite understand in his shocked state.  
            “…Up, you idiot! Do you want to get killed?” Keith scrambled to his feet, running for his bayard. The girl continued shooting sentries with some kind of dart that came from her glove. “Get into the trees,” she shouted, then continued under her breath, “Go figure. I send a distress call and end up having to rescue the people who answer it.” The Voltron paladins obeyed her orders and ran for the shelter of the jungle, the girl covering their retreat. She ran into the forest after them.  
            “Follow me,” she ordered, “and stay quiet until I say you can talk.” She led them for about ten tense minutes before breathing out. “I don’t think anyone followed us. You can talk now.”  
            Shiro had been studying their rescuer and noticed a few things. First, she couldn’t possibly be any older than Keith or Lance. Second, she was skinny, much too skinny. It hadn’t escaped his notice that she was wearing a Galra prison uniform, and he clenched his fists in anger at what the Galra would do to someone who was only a teenager. Then he noticed that Lance was getting a look on his face that Shiro had only seen twice before. Once when Alura had tumbled out if the cyro pod into Lance’s arms and another time when they had stopped to help some aliens that had betrayed them and stolen the blue lion. Here comes trouble, he thought.  
            “So, what’s your name,” Lance asked the brown haired, brown eyed freckled and tanned girl.  
            “Shiana,” she replied, “what are you names, my gallant would-be heroes?”  
            “I’m Lance. The grumpy looking one is Keith. Our leader, Shiro, Hunk, our heart and Pidge, who’ll act gruff but actually has a heart of gold.”  
            “I have no heart,” replied Pidge, completely straight faced. She could tell what Lance would likely do next and wanted no part in it.  
            “Soooo, I hear you need our help?”  
            “Am I actually that grumpy looking,” asked Keith, mystified.  
            “Yes,” replied Lance, “stop interrupting.”  
            “I interrupted once!”  
            “One time too many. So, why do you need our help?” Shiana looked at him as if it were the most obvious thing on the planet, which it was.  
            “Look around! My planet is overrun with Galra!”  
            “How long have they been here,” interjected Shiro.  
            “I’d say about a hundred years or so.”  
Shiro was shocked. “And we just now got a signal?”  
Shiana snorted. “I only found the beacon last week. Give me a break.”  
            The group had reached a small house in the middle of the jungle. Shiana opened the door and they walked inside. Shiana stiffened and her ears, which Shiro realized were the same shape as Alura and Coran’s, twitched.  
            “They’re coming! The Galra must be doing a search!” She quickly opened up part of her bed that moved on hinges, and ushered them to a trapdoor, which she opened and shoved them down. “Don’t touch anything,” she called down after them before closing the door.  
            The paladins found themselves in a fairly large underground room, littered with various mechanical parts. Shiro could see a complete space suit, much like his own along with various other weapons. They could hear muffled voices from up above.  
            “No, I’m not hiding any Voltron paladins! Why would you even think that?”  
            “Orders are orders. We will search your house.”  
            “Fine. It’s not like I have anything to hide.”  
The paladins held their breath as the Galra rummaged around above them. Then the rustling stopped and footsteps faded away. The trapdoor above them opened, and Shiana poked her head in.  
            “You can come out now,” she called softly, “they’re gone.” The paladins clambered out, shutting the door behind them. Shiana collapsed into a chair with a sigh.  
            “Shiana, I know this is hard, but we need you to tell us what’s going on,” Shiro said gently, “I saw Altean tech down there. Start with that. Where did you get that?”  
Shiana blew a strand of her short hair out of her face. “A crash site.”  
            “Any survivors?”  
Shiana laughed bitterly. “No, it’s not like that. Let me tell you about that. A little more than ten-thousand years ago an Altean battleship landed on our planet. At first we were scared. We thought we had angered our friends, the Alteans. Then an Altean pilot stumbled out. He told us Altea was being attacked, and would we please, please, help him. We agreed. Our best men and women got onto that ship. It was too late. By the time they reached Altea, the planet was destroyed. A Galra blast hit the ship and it crash-landed here. The pilot was devastated. Eventually, though, he fell in love, was married, and had children, who had children and eventually they had my mother. Who of course had me.”  
            “You’re part Altean,” burst out Keith, “That’s why your ears are pointy!”  
Shiana smiled at him. “Yes. Only the females in my family get the ears, and only rarely.”  
Shiro noticed something else. “Where are your gloves?” She had on only flat but thick bracelets. “Oh. Glove form,” Shiana answered. The bracelets on her wrist started to unfold, making gloves on her hands. The earthlings stared at her in shock.  
            “They, uh, have a voice recognition,” said Shiana, embarrassed, “I built them. They have darts and can shoot electricity by pulling a charge out of the air. Bracelet.” The gloves folded back into bracelets, and Pidge was all over Shiana.  
            “How did you make those? How do they pull electrical charge out of the air?”  
Shiana smiled at the short girl’s enthusiasm. “Lots of time and effort, with a few explosions. The air has electricity in it, the gloves just pull out enough to put it in a physical form.”  
 Keith frowned. “You said you had a mother. Where is she?”  
Shiana’s face turned dark. “My mother brought the slaves stories about the outside universe by spying on the Galra. One day they caught her and dragged her to their prisons. I haven’t seen her since.” Keith nodded in sympathy.  
“Your father?”  
“dead,” was her answer, “That’s why my mom was spying. They caught him spying and shot him on the spot.” Keith wanted to find the nearest Galra and punch it in the face.  
“I saw the space suit down there,” said Shiro, “so why did you ask for us? You could escape on your own.”  
Shiana shook her head “Once a group of slaves escaped. For every slave that escaped they punished ten. Then they caught the slaves and killed them. One of them was my best friend, Akimi. I never got close to anyone again.” Keith’s heart ached for this poor girl. He understood that more than anyone. He actually found himself wanting to hug her, which was a new feeling. Even Lance looked subdued.  
“So, what do you mean you only found the distress beacon a week ago?”  
“It was hidden. I knew there was a beacon on our planet, I just didn’t know where. I found it last week, turned it on and have been waiting for help to arrive ever since.” A thought occurred to Keith. This girl had the perfect setup. The Galra already knew they could lure Lance in with a pretty face. Hunk, of course, would be perfectly fine helping anyone. Shiro would want to help her as she was a slave. Throw in a tragic story similar to his own to pull Keith in and give her amazing tech that would trap Pidge and… bam. Five captured Paladins. She had the perfect setup to lure them in.  
“How do we know you won’t betray us,” demanded Keith.  
Lance looked at him, shocked. “Keith! She asked for our help and we’re giving it to her! Don’t be such a suspicious grump!”  
Shiana looked at him with a piercing gaze. “I promise I will not betray you. I could never, not after all my mother told me. What heroes you were to her. She always told me that if we could only find the distress beacon, you would come out of the skies and save us.”  
Keith met her level gaze with his own. He could tell that she spoke the truth. “I believe you. Now you need to trust me.” He turned off the disguise. Shiana stared at him blankly.  
“You are purple,” she stated in a blank tone.  
“Yes.”  
“You are a Galra.”  
“Halfway there, yes.”  
“I hate the Galra.”  
“You are taking this awfully calmly.”  
“Just wait for the shock to be over.” Shiana exhaled loudly. “Ohhhh, quiznek, no. There is a Galra in my house.” She put her head in her hands. “There is a Galra in my house, and I showed him my underground bunker. Quiznek. Quiznek, quiznek, quiznek.” Keith was taken aback.  
“I would never tell them!”  
“I know! It’s just… Argh! I can’t believe I was this careless!” she took in a deep, shuddering breath. “Keith. Lift up the hair on the back of your neck.”  
“What?  
“Just do it!” Keith obeyed. Shiana poked a spot on the back of the neck. He tensed up. “How long have you had this scar?” Shiana asked Keith. He blinked. Was a tiny scar the reason for her panic?  
“Since I was eight. I was being inoculated and something went wrong.”  
“No. everything went right for the Galra. Be right back.” She left to go to a small kitchen area and returned with a kitchen knife and pliers.  
“Uh, what are you going to do with those,” Keith asked nervously.  
“Just hold still and keep your hair out of the way. No boy should have hair that long without putting it in a ponytail,” she muttered. Lance looked like he was going to burst out laughing. Shiana came behind Keith. Then he felt something slice into his skin.  
“OUCH,” Keith roared, “WHAT ARE YOU DOING!”  
“Calm down!” Shiana retorted, “You have a tracking device inside of you! I’m taking it out.”  
“YOU SLICED MY NECK OPEN!”  
“Well how else am I supposed to get it out,” Shiana replied exasperatedly.  
“DON’T YOU PUT THOSE PLIERS NEAR ME! I’M NOT A MACHINE YOU CAN TAKE APART!”  
“Don’t be such a drama queen. I washed these. Anyway, if you want the Galra to find you then I will gladly kick you out into the jungle. It’s not that bad. You’ll have a scar crossing the other one, but this way you won’t be dead. Now hold still.” Shiana carefully pried something out from under his skin. It stung, but Keith held his tongue.  
“There.” Shiana set a small metal object on the table. “All done. Stop freaking out. She rummaged around until she found a wet cloth and something resembling a Band-Aid and handed them to Keith.  
“Now we have to decide what to do with this.”  
“Destroy it?” That was Hunk.  
“No. then they’ll know for sure where you are.” Shiana picked up a bow and arrow that was laying randomly on the floor and climbed onto the roof. From there she attached the tracking chip to an arrow and shot it far off into the jungle.  
“There,” she said with satisfaction, “now for all they know you are lost in the jungle and if they can’t find you, well, that’s their problem.” She climbed back down. “Now, our problem is trying to get you back to your lions without being seen.”

Shiana moved silently under the leaves. The others only wished they could be as quiet. As a Galra patrol passed by, they took refuge in some bushes, then continued on their way. Then Shiro noticed thick scars on the upper half of Shiana’s arms.  
“What happened?” Shiro asked, gently touching the scar. Shiana jerked away.  
“I was five. Galra told me to do something I didn’t want to do. I made a face at him, which made him angry. He had a whip.”  
“He whipped a five-year-old?!” Shiro could feel the anger rising in his chest and could see it on the other’s faces.  
“The Galra have done many terrible things,” Shiana said softly. They continued to move in silence.  
The group stopped as another patrol moved in. but this patrol was different. They deliberately stopped, their leader a living, breathing Galra. A woman was dragged up. She had pointy ears. Shiana’s face drained of color.  
“Shiana,” the leader said, cruelly soft, “we know you are there. Come out and hand the Paladins to us and we will give you your mother. We will let you and her live together again. Just give us the Paladins. What worth are they to you anyway?” Shiana started to move. Keith turned to look at her, panicked. She motioned for him to stay calm, and moved silently to the end of the bushes and quickly to another large bush.  
The Galra leader heard the slightest rustle of foliage. He smiled. Shiana might be an expert outdoors-woman, but the paladins were not. He knew exactly where they were now.  
Shiana took aim at the Galra leader holding her mother and fired. He moved his head ever so slightly, and the dart missed him. Shiana sucked in a deep breath.  
“They’re in those bushes,” the Galra leader said. But instead of pointing where Shiana’s dart had come from, he pointed to where the paladins were hiding. Shiana let a curse in her native language slip out. She had thought she was smart enough to keep them from finding the Paladins, but the Galra had heard something. She leapt out of the bushes with a cry and attacked. Near her, the paladins were doing the same. The leader shoved Shiana’s mother away to defend himself. The paladins quickly overpowered the Galra, but heard a whistle. They turned to see the leader holding a knife to Shiana’s mother’s throat.  
“Don’t try to chase me. I’m leaving. If you follow, I’ll slit her throat.” Nobody moved, and he backed off, dragging his captive with him. The paladins made a run to their lions. They all made it except Keith and Shiana. A hoard of Galra were blocking their way.  
“Keith,” whispered Shiana urgently, “I need you to take out my tracking chip.”  
“What?!”  
“My tracking chip. I have one too. Please take it out.” Shiana handed Keith the knife and pliers. To his relief, she had washed them since their last use. Shiana moved her hair, and Keith removed her chip. He felt like throwing up.  
“Normally I would suggest stealth, but I don’t think that’s an option here.” The two teens charged the Galra. They fought like wild animals, but there were too many Galra. They were being overwhelmed. Keith slashed through a few more before backing up next to Shiana.  
“Get to Red,” Keith yelled, “I’ll be right behind you!” Shiana nodded. Then she ran right towards the Galra. She leapt, and her metal boots lifted her up. Keith realized that those boots were like his jet-pack. Shiana sailed over the Galra and ran for the lion. Keith tried to do the same thing, but one of the Galra shot his jet pack as he launched into the air, and he tumbled to the ground.  
“C’mon! open up!” Shiana pounded on the particle barrier surrounding the red lion. “Keith is in danger! You just gonna let him die?” The lion looked like it was laughing at her. “Seriously? He’s your pilot! Your paladin!” the particle barrier remained up. “Fine. I’ll rescue him without your help.” Shiana marched off towards the fight. She heard a noise behind her. When she turned around, the particle barrier was down. The lion seemed like it was rolling its eyes at her. She climbed into the head and sat down at the controls.  
“Okay. Now what.” Shiana may not have been a paladin, connected to the lion, but she could feel its contempt for her, plain as day, as though the lion was saying, _figure it out yourself._  
“Thank you for that extremely unhelpful comment,” Shiana said out loud. Then she started to press buttons until they shot into the sky. She experimented until she figured out how to steer and drop lower or rise up, then she was off to the battle.  
Keith couldn’t hold out much longer. His leg hurt from where he had fallen on it, and his sword arm was starting to droop. There were just too many Galra. He hoped that Red had let Shiana in. A robot managed, finally, to disarm him. His bayard was out of reach. The robot kicked him in the chest, and he flew backwards. He reached for his bayard, but the sentry blasted it with his weapon and kicked him again. His muscles weren’t working. He tried to get up, but the robot put a foot on his chest and stepped. Hard. Keith felt something in his ribs go crack. This was it. He was going to die. Away from his lion, from Voltron. It was getting hard to breathe. Spots were dancing in front of his eyes.  
Then he heard it. A roar. Laser fire. He saw, dimly, the red lion, his lion, flying above. The weight disappeared off his chest as the Galra exploded. The red lion landed in front of him, and the jaw lowered, ready for him to climb in. Keith managed to get up, and as he did he could hear Shiana’s voice, arguing with the lion.  
“Oh, yes I would have been able to rescue him myself. You just made the job happen quicker. Yeah? Well if you had let me in first time I knocked he wouldn’t have been in that situation.” Keith pulled his bruised body into the lion and Shiana jumped out of the pilot seat.  
“Sorry that took so long. I would have been there sooner, but someone wouldn’t let me in,” Shiana said, glaring good-naturedly at the lion. “She was stubborn.” Keith frowned.  
“Red’s a boy.” Shiana gave him the same look she had given Lance when he tried to flirt with her.  
“No, definitely a girl. She doesn’t have a mane and usually there is only one male in a pride of lions. Also, ships are always called she. Good Lord, you seriously don’t know that? I know that, and I’ve never stepped into a ship before now.” Keith slid into the pilot seat, turning on the com that Shiana hadn’t known how to operate.  
“Red lion is ready.” Voices of relief were heard from everyone, even Lance. Shiana was picking up that, despite the arguing, Lance really didn’t hate Keith.  
“Keith! We thought the Galra had captured or injured you!” That was Shiro.  
“Ran into some trouble. Shiana had to fly Red for a bit.”  
“Ready to form Voltron?”  
“Let’s do this.” Keith turned to Shiana. “You might want to find something to hold onto…Ok. You’ve done that already.” Shiana had somehow, in the time he had been talking, managed to put on her space-suit, which she had brought in a bag, rig up a chair, attach that chair to Keith’s pilot seat and buckle herself in. Then, flying in formation, the paladins joined their minds together into one cause: Form Voltron. The massive robot sailed into the sky.  
Shiana watched, fascinated, as Keith plugged in his bayard and the sword formed. They sailed into space, destroying Galra with every swipe of the sword. But the Galra did not want to give up the planet. More and more of them came until Voltron was forced to disband and fly back to the Castle of Lions. Shiana stared out the window, tears streaming from her eyes, as the Castle of Lions sailed through a wormhole, leaving her planet far, far, behind.

**Author's Note:**

> There is a part two to this, if you enjoyed


End file.
